For What It’s Worth

That should do it for this afternoon. Have a great Halloween.

If you can’t move, improve your present situationIt’s all very well for me to suggest, as I do below, that this is the perfect time to take advantage of our economic mess and the uncertainty it’s created by buying a house cheap but what if you can’t do that? What if, for example, you’d [...]

The month is (almost) upAbsent a flurry of reporting in the next 45 minutes, we’ll have seen just ten contracts for single family houses this month. That compares to 33 last October, which was not a banner month itself. So sales activity is dormant. I think it may be an excellent time to buy, and [...]

Real estate pricing theory, high-end style
So let’s say that you paid $25.75 million for waterfront at 112 Field Point Circle in June of ‘07 (the Old Victor Borge place, now missing his house). You decide that you may have made a slight miscalculation, or maybe you see better opportunities elsewhere, like horning in on that [...]

Did you hear the Happy News?
(From someone else’s column)
” For the nation, existing-home sales increased last month as buyers responded to improved housing affordability conditions”
A cynic might describe “improved affordability conditions” as the bottom dropping out of sales prices, but he’d run the very real risk of the NAR stripping him of his [...]

With enemies like these, it must be a great ideaWe voters have a choice next Tuesday to call for a Constitutional Convention – no agenda beyond that, but all hell is bound to break out if citizens meet to discuss what our state government should look like going forward. Support of a political [...]

Here’s a sad story:Murtha pleads for money to save his seat after calling constituents racists
“We need to raise another $1 million to compete,” his campaign fundraiser Susan O’Neill wrote in the e-mail obtained by The Hill. “We need money immediately.”
O’Neill blamed Republicans from outside Pennsylvania for Murtha’s problems.
Those damn outside agitators – can’t we [...]

I realize that different jurisdictions can have different lawsBut what law sees students arrested for hanging an Obama effigy when a Sarah Palin figure or or an effigy of a U.S. soldier is hanged with impunity?

Well this isn’t going to pay for a house in Greenwich! Laid off Wall Streeters turn to bartending.
On the other hand, this might: Wall Street execs say they won’t kill bonuses. I think that, politically, these guys are morons but since they’ve already demonstrated that they’re financial idiots, why not? If those with [...]

Now that it’s too late,CBS finally fact-checks Obama’s ass. And guess what? His numbers don’t add up.
If he closes every loophole as promised, saves every dime from Iraq, raises taxes on the rich and trims the federal budget as he’s promised to do “line by line,” he still doesn’t pay for his list. If he’s [...]

Spec housesA reader asked for an updated figure on the number of spec houses currently on the market and I’m happy to oblige. Without examining each and every listing, I can only estimate, but I ran a search for houses built in 2006 to date, on the assumption that most are being offered by their [...]

Lower my price? Are you mad?
Saw a couple of houses on the open house tour today that will never attract offers, in my opinion. One seller, according to the listing agent, had rejected her pricing advice and insisted that buyers would realize how unique and special his run-down little cottage is. Fat chance.
The other [...]

Here’s a saleAlways nice to see any activity, I suppose. 17 Suburban Avenue is a nice, brand new, free standing condo that was originally listed in May, 2007 for $1.695 million. It was reported sold today for $1.259 million. I doubt its builder made much money on it at that price, but at least he’s [...]

Twin Lakes RevisitedWell this was a disappointment. I mentioned this new listing yesterday and today got to see what’s been done to it in the past 35 years. Not much, it seems. Instead of the waterfront I remember, all that’s left is a view easement and a physical easement that will permit you to cart [...]

So, how’s the rental market?I’ve heard it said that the town’s just buzzing with young New Yorkers, snapping up our listings in preparation for buying next year. That’s nice. I also see this in today’s open house listings:
$5,000/MO6 YEAR YOUNG COLONIAL, 5 BEDROOM, DUNDEE SCHOOL, MINT. WILL ENTERTAIN ALL OFFERS.
As I like to say, your [...]

More on Joe State investigation of Joe the Plumber more extensive than first admitted
A state agency has revealed that its checks of computer systems for potential information on “Joe the Plumber” were more extensive than it first acknowledged.
Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, disclosed today that computer inquiries on [...]